Manipulating the Terminator Line
by MedliR
Summary: In the end, it would be beautiful. He would manipulate her into giving him everything he wanted to know, and he would break her in front of everyone she held dear. That was, after all, the plan. Set during DoC. An alternate look at certain events.
1. Prologue: Limits of Choice

_Manipulating the Terminator Line - Prologue: Limits of Choice_

Thanks and dedication go out to **Reading Chick**, without whom this story may have never gotten off the proverbial drawing board, as our Tsviet-centered conversations have been very beneficial and encouraging! Go and read her story, Never Too Late, if you haven't already. It is a wonderful piece of writing and I am confident in promising that you will enjoy it. I've also somewhat stolen her chapter format, as I've discovered it works far better for this piece than the layout I previously had. Thank you again.

The song for this chapter is Enigma's Gravity of Love. Thanks for musical scoring goes to Leonora T.

Disclaimer: I do not own either Final Fantasy VII and all of its subsequent sequels/prequels, or the song mentioned above. They respectively belong to Square Enix and Enigma. The idea for this piece came from a storyline first thought of by Leonora T. and nariosaw, and it is used with their permission.

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Ever since she had begun speaking to the poor, strange, dark man, all her dreams were lucid. Not that Yuffie minded, though. It was actually very useful. The ability to do anything she liked within her dreams gave her the chance to work out some very difficult problems and a lot of frustration. More importantly, it gave her the chance to relax. Anywhere she wanted to go, anything she wanted to do or see, she could. Unless she was working within her head, she was walking in a forest or dancing in the rain or watching a sunset. Tonight, she was foregoing figuring out a particularly knotty troop placement problem for standing on the edge of some high, nondescript cliff, planet only knew where. But it was where she wanted to be, so, there she was.

Yuffie closed her eyes and let the slight wind sway her body. She was feeling strained. She wanted to help this poor creature that called to her for aid, but she didn't know quite how to do it. Over all their conversations together, she had come to care for him very deeply. He was in trouble, and he seemed so kind and lost, that she couldn't refuse him. The only problem was Deepground. There was no way around them. No matter what plan she came up with, Deepground was going to be a problem, and those Tsviets were a factor that she couldn't quite pin down.

Yuffie sat down on the edge of the cliff in a mess of limbs and placed her chin on her fist, looking out at the ocean so many, many hundreds of feet below. She wasn't afraid of it; on the contrary, she had chosen a cliff for this particular deliberation for a very good reason. Her mother, before she died, had always told her that in order to make a firm decision, she had to be guided to the limits of choice, she had to choose whether to take the safe path or take the risk and fall. Depending on what Yuffie decided here tonight, she would either take the path behind her down to the foot of the hills, or let herself fall off the edge of the cliff and allow gravity to do as it would with her. Everything within her, save for one, small, doubting piece of her mind and heart, told her that she should take the fall. It was that one, small, doubting piece that she was here to convince, or give in to. She wasn't sure yet.

The pivotal question, she thought, still staring at the sea, was whether or not she could handle the pressure. In order to do this successfully, every plan she could think of that had even a small margin of success required her to keep this to herself and go in alone. It wasn't that she couldn't keep information privileged; as Reeve's Spymaster, she had the right to do that, it was simply that she didn't know if she could keep such an involved, dangerous project secret from her friends.

It wouldn't be a problem if she were caught by Deepground, or even the Tsviets. He had told her that the same ability that allowed him to access her mind and speak to her could be used to protect her and all that she knew from anyone who would try to harm her. And they would try to harm her if they knew she was there for him - everything he had told her as good as screamed out that Deepground and Tsviets considered her poor, trapped friend a very valuable resource. But that protection could not be extended to her friends or anyone else she chose to tell about this mission. That meant that she had to go in alone, and keep all information secret, close to her chest. She couldn't risk, wouldn't risk, involving anyone else and letting them get injured.

Yuffie laughed softly, catching her choice of words in thought. If she was already considering it a mission, then that meant she had convinced her head. The only thing left to convince was her heart.

Yuffie stood up and began idly pacing the edge of the cliff. She could feel the wind tug at her if she got too close. She wanted so much to let it pull her over, but there was that one, small, doubting piece that resisted, and pulled her backwards away from the edge. She wasn't at the limit of her choice yet. She wasn't ready to let gravity take her. Looking up and breathing out a sigh, Yuffie let her mind wander towards the reason her heart was still undecided.

The pull in her soul was so very strong, it was nearly painful. Listening to her tall, dark friend talk, hearing that particular lilt he had to his speech made her want to smile and cry at the same time. She enjoyed their conversations. But she had enjoyed others as well. She had nearly chosen to risk everything once before, before her inner voices had told her that she was not capable of answering the questions and making the choice. Those voices were silent now, and that was the most disconcerting thing of all. Yuffie felt lost with no way out of wherever she was, incapable of deciding. No. Unwilling to decide, afraid to decide. Something deep inside her, something so low in her body and so primal that she couldn't tell if it was herself or some long dormant connection to the planet all Leviathan's children were rumored to have, was telling her that whatever she chose, whatever she decided on this night, would bind her life and her soul forever.

Taking a deep breath, Yuffie went to stand at the edge of the cliff. It was now, or never. She opened her mind and her heart to two distinct possibilities: one, that she would help this strange, almost sweet man she had come to know, and the second, that she would refuse. The first choice filled her body with so much pleasure and happiness that she broke out into a grin, smiling up at the moon. Considering the second, however, she felt her body go cold and she shivered, tears coming to her eyes. She rapidly closed them, trying to blink away the drops but not succeeding, and, opening her eyes, she watched gravity take the few tears she had shed at the thought of losing this man down to the ocean, and Yuffie raised her head, looking up at the sky and the moon and giving them a watery, shaky smile, before finally letting the wind pull her over the edge of the cliff. She had come to the limit of her choice, and her heart had told her to take the fall.

She allowed gravity to take her down to the water and gently pull her down to sink beneath the waves, and then, after she had remained here for a while, floating in the comfort of a decision finally made and a resolved spirit, she would allow herself to wake up.

* * *

Deep beneath the ruins of Midgar, eyes closed in concentration and focus, Nero the Sable smiled.

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**Notes:** I have two requests for this piece: one, which I am not thrilled at having to resort to, is that if you favorite this story you leave me a review so that I can tell what parts are working (even if all you tell me is that you liked the whole thing, that tells me something), and two, that you remain patient. This story may take a while to update, as it may get very dark, and it will be difficult to write. So please, if this is something that you enjoy, and I have not updated in a while, rest assured that I have not forgotten it and keep the requests for updates to a minimum, as I know some of you are very eager to see this story progress. Thank you.

The terminator line is the line between light and dark, or day and night, on a planetary body.

Formatting is a touch funny, but should be better in future chapters when I have more to a scene than a single line.


	2. Chapter 1: What In The World Could

_Manipulating the Terminator Line - Chapter 1: What In The World Could Ever Come Between Us?_

This chapter was written entirely to Dolores O'Riordan's Ordinary Day. It sets up the chapter in a twisted way, if you look at the lyrics and keep them in mind while reading, or if you set it on loop while reading.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any related works; these belong to Square Enix. Ordinary Day belongs to Dolores O'Riordan. Both have my thanks for the inspiration!

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Yuffie sighed as she shifted position on the rooftop. Following Vincent around was getting to be annoying, especially since Reeve told her she couldn't interfere. For some reason, Vincent was supposed to think he was alone. Yuffie didn't think that would hold for a second. In her opinion, Vincent had crazy-scary-good senses, and he would know if she was a mile away. But, she idly mused, he hadn't made any move to suggest he was aware of her, so maybe he was a little preoccupied.

Preoccupied was a mild word, perhaps too mild for the situation they were currently in. Kalm was currently absolutely insane. Those suited freaks were running around and loading people into boxes, but not everyone. Yuffie had no idea why. She just knew that she didn't want to find out if she was one of the people they would shove into a box. The foot-soldiers were fairly easy to avoid, though. They almost never looked up, thus her current position on a roof. But the dogs, or whatever they were, were another story. They were all over the place, sniffing and growling at everything, and Yuffie was careful to stay downwind of them and well in the shadows.

Shifting again, as quietly as possible, Yuffie squinted through a pair of night-vision goggles. She knew her antsy behavior meant she was getting bored, or irritated. Finding Vincent through the goggles, Yuffie zoomed in on him and clicked the side button to record the entire thing. While the integrated camera hummed away, Yuffie let her mind wander, knowing she could re-watch anything she happened to miss. This mission just wasn't as important to her as she had initially thought it would be.

Pursing her lips, Yuffie thought back to when Reeve first gave her this mission. She was supposed to watch Vincent and make sure nothing happened to him. Why, Yuffie didn't know. Vincent was always fine. She wondered if it was because Reeve thought Vincent would skip out on their arranged meeting. He really wanted the crimson-cloaked man to work for the W.R.O. Smirking slightly, Yuffie realized that that was probably the very reason she had been told to follow Vincent, without his knowledge of it. That way, if he did skip out, Yuffie would know exactly where he was, and by proxy, so would Reeve. She had been very excited about following around her favorite person.

But this...this organization, or whatever they were, had just shown up out of the blue. Reeve was lucky she was in Kalm. His frantic orders over PHS had reiterated that she was to follow Vincent, but also told her to record everything she could, stay out of harm's way if at all possible, and help Vincent only if he was in danger of being taken away or killed.

So here she was. Following and recording and staying hidden. And currently bored stiff. And she didn't really know why. Normally, she was ecstatic to be able to follow Vincent around. It thrilled her to no end. She would be bouncy and giggly and happy - she would be like any other girl with a crush. But now...

Now, she wasn't so sure. She had liked Vincent for three years. But she hadn't seen him in nearly ten months. Instead, she had seen her father, the rest of Avalanche, the Turks, and Reeve. And the last time she'd seen Reeve, he had offered her a job. Head of the Intelligence Division. Her. She loved it. She was scared of it, though, having so many people to worry about. But she rationalized it as being just another facet of being a Princess. She would eventually have to rule Wutai - and this thought caused her to wrinkle her nose - and this was a similar position. Yuffie bit back a giggle as she imagined Reeve as Leviathan, the only one she would answer to when she was Empress.

Since her mind had been so consumed with work lately, she had very little time to think about the man she was currently following. Who, upon focusing on the image she was seeing through her goggles, just left the square below. Yuffie muttered a curse and quickly got up to follow him. The video she was recording now would surely make whoever ended up watching it sick, but she didn't care. Right now the most important thing was finding Vincent and not making it look like she was slacking on the job.

Yuffie snuck through mazes of pipes and shingles, trying her best to stay hidden. She had to sprint once and abandon the shadows in order to avoid a dog-thing, and that scared her half to death. Close up, she almost wanted to say the creatures were cybernetic, and she suppressed a shiver as she wondered exactly who on the planet these people were.

Hearing gunshots, she veered slightly left and scaled the wall of the building in front of her, ending up on its roof. Looking down, she found Vincent again and focused the goggles back on him. Observing him closely this time, Yuffie was suddenly struck with the realization of why she was so bored. Vincent was no longer her favorite person.

She realized that she liked him, but just as much as she liked some of her other friends. Settling down onto her stomach, Yuffie propped her chin up on her hands and idly swung her feet against each other, her legs bent at the knee so her shoes wouldn't scrape against the roof and alert anyone with good hearing that she was there. She watched Vincent intently, trying to determine what it was that made him lose his position on her list of people she loved more than anything on the planet, and as he bowed his head for a quick second after finishing off one of the dog-things, she knew what it was.

His obsession with Lucrecia was getting to her. Sure, Lucrecia was a beautiful woman, and she looked very kind. Yuffie had gone to her cave a few times and just sat there, trying to be Vincent and see what he saw. All she saw was a beautiful, kind-looking woman trapped in mako crystals and not likely to get out any time soon. Privately, Yuffie thought that if Chaos wasn't able to get her out, then she would never be released and Vincent was wasting his time. She had, after first coming to this conclusion, tried to make him see it through various means: sticking to him like glue for a week, stealing his materia again, not stealing his materia, dressing as provocatively as she dared, being very nice to him, wearing glasses, and reading science books. None of those methods ever worked. And apparently, sometime in the ten-month interval since she had last seen Vincent, Yuffie had grown tired of trying. Nodding decisively, she decided that she would forget him and move on, or at least try to.

Shaking herself in an attempt to get back into super-ninja-spy mode, she moved her fingers and began twisting the dials on the night-vision goggles, trying to get Reeve as much information as she could.

* * *

From his place in the deep shadows at the rear of the building's rooftop, Nero the Sable shook his head. This girl was Yuffie Kisaragi, the Wutaian ninja from the Avalanche group that had supposedly saved the planet? He could barely believe it. She looked like she was barely an adult, and from her habit of kicking her feet together, he pegged her as twitchy. A twitchy ninja. The image amused him to no end. He supposed that was a good alternative to the irritation he had been feeling towards her a few moments ago.

When Nero had arrived in Kalm, he had not intended to get involved, but he had wanted to see this Vincent Valentine and determine the level of threat he and this W.R.O. presented. Leaning against the wall, he decided he was not impressed with the W.R.O., but Valentine was proving interesting. Deciding he had seen enough, he turned to disappear back into Deepground's headquarters when a flash of light caught his eye. The light reminded him of Weiss, and this aroused his curiosity, as he had never seen anyone but Weiss like that, and as far as he knew, no one else existed, or should have.

Narrowing his eyes, Nero dispersed enough of the dark cloud surrounding him to get a better look at the blur that was showing up in his mind and through the haze of Oblivion as such bright light, and he had discovered it was a young girl. Confused, he took advantage of the chaos Valentine was causing - his choice of words made him smile at the irony - and relocated to a rooftop opposite the girl's. Perhaps the light wasn't quite as bright as he had originally assumed. He was distracted, after all.

He was not mistaken. Observing the girl, who seemed to be deep in thought, Nero realized that she was as bright as his brother, if not more so. Her light was, if he dared to use the words, more pure. Nero, in a mild state of shock, nearly swallowed the girl in Oblivion when the more rational part of his mind called attention to the fact that she seemed to be spying. But for whom?

Casting his thoughts about like a net, he filtered out the minds of the personnel he was familiar with and kept a mental eye on the girl and Valentine. Valentine wasn't aware of her. But she was there to spy on him. Gently pushing deeper into her mind, as he had no idea if she was trained to detect mental intrusions, Nero discovered that the head of the W.R.O. had sent her to follow Valentine and make sure he didn't, take off? The terminology he understood, the intent he did not. Nero mentally shook himself; it was not important. What was, was this girl's train of thought. Deciding to dig further in her mind, Nero tuned out Valentine and refocused on the girl right when she got up and bolted.

Cursing, Nero opened his eyes and physically regarded the world below, realizing the girl had left because Valentine had. Trying to keep his tenuous hold on her mind, he overlapped the feel of her thoughts with the map he had memorized of Kalm and waited, amused at her run in with the canines, until she stopped and settled in to her new position, upon which he followed her.

Making the transition as quietly as he could, he took up watching the girl again and cast himself deeper into her mind. That particular ability was so useful at times. Though only his fellow Tsviets knew of it, and of them, only Shelke and Weiss truly understood the depth to which his mental networking went. Finding a suitable train of thought upon which to slip into the girl's mind, he immediately sought out the core of her thoughts, wanting to know her name and how she identified herself.

And this was where he found himself now. Though he found it interesting that the girl, Yuffie, he reminded himself, did not think of herself as the princess she was, but rather as a ninja and the Head of Intelligence for the W.R.O. What was even more interesting, however, was her thoughts about Valentine. Biting his lip, Nero wondered if he could use this to his advantage. He still wanted to swallow her in Oblivion for daring to be a brighter light than his brother, but perhaps crushing her would be better.

Smiling slowly, Nero realized that crushing her would be infinitely better. How perfect, he thought, for a creature so bright to be corrupted, broken, and tainted absolutely black, and then left to live in agony and shame until they died? She was the W.R.O.'s chief spy...that would come in handy. Nero realized, with a momentary jolt of pleasure, that if he played his cards right, he could use her to betray all of her friends' secrets to him and make Weiss' takeover of the planet even easier. The only problem he could see was how to go about it.

Focusing on her thoughts again, Nero looked to see if there was any way he could manage to gain her trust. She was something of a bleeding-heart towards the misunderstood, loving, capable of intense loyalty and focus on those she considered close, and currently in the middle of making a very serious, life-changing decision. All of these would work wonderfully to his advantage. All he had to do was give himself a permanent door into her mind and appeal to her dangerously loving nature. He would present himself as a victim, gain her trust, and break her entirely. And she would be such a willing participant. She would never know how wrong she was.

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**Notes: **I again ask that if you favorite this story, you leave a review. I use the reviews to improve and figure out what works and what does not, so I view them as more than a mere ego-boost or a status symbol. Even a simple "This is good," tells me more than you may realize.

Thank you for reading!


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